FEW YEARS AGO , the smell of gasoline at the Food 'N Fuel convenience store
and gas station in Greenfield began to worry the people who lived next door,
and others in the neighborhood who in the evening walk along that stretch
of Routes 5 & 10. The neighbors reported the smell to the fire department,
which in turn alerted the state Department of Environmental Protection. The
DEP confirmed that underground tanks were leaking petroleum into the soil.
Confronted with the long-term cost of clean-up, the owners declared bankruptcy
and abandoned the site.

The situation is unfortunate, and more
unfortunate still is the fact that it's hardly unique. Thousands of gas
stations in Massachusetts present similar problems, according to engineering
professor Sharon Long '84. That's Long's bad news. Her good news is that
something can be done about it, and she doesn't even have to leave the
lab to show you what.

Long is an environmental microbiologist
and a specialist in bioremediation the use of microorganisms to remedy
environmental problems. Holding a color slide up to the light in her Marston
Hall lab, Long squints at an image of amorphous yellow splotches on a black
background. Bacteria as small as a tenth of a millimeter across, stained
on a membrane filter and viewed under a microscope, these may look like
the bad guys to you and me. But Long sees their potential. Certain microscopic
"bugs," as she calls them, use spilled petroleum for food, and
can restore a damaged patch of land or sea to health without the introduction
of still more synthetic chemicals.

A natural clean-up can take as long as
seventy years, but "we can shorten that time to one to two years,
maybe even less, depending on the size of the spill, by applying engineered
technology," says Long. Helpful microorganisms already exist in the
soil.

Sharon
Long assessing the needs of friendly microorganisms at the Food 'N Fuel site.

"The key question is, what are the
environmental factors slowing them down?" Once that question is answered,
the next step is developing techniques to remove the barriers.
Soil aeration and addition of nutrients are two ways of clicking nature's
fast-forward button, Long says. Another choice "which the Environmental
Protection Agency used to call `Do Nothing' until that started scaring
people" is simply monitoring the site and ensuring that the spill
doesn't seep further. That still may sometimes be an option in some cases,
she adds, provided there are no imminent hazards.

In the case of the boarded-up Food `N
Fuel in Greenfield, the "Do Nothing" option can be dispensed
with. Long got involved in the project last summer, brought in by Bruce
Tease, a colleague from the environmental science program, who had become
interested in the property after driving by it on his way to work each
day. Working in concert with town officials, the scientists hope to clean
up the site with an eye toward creating a green space and a tourism booth.
Some $80,000 in federal funding has given the project a solid start.

"It's a really nice community effort,"
Long says. "We've got some students working with us as well, which
is nice for them in terms of their resumes; it's a real integrated team."
That integrated team has needed to be hardy as well. Long relishes doing
research outdoors, and New England weather doesn't stop her. "I love
working in the field," she declared one day last winter, then paused.
"I have to call public works and ask them not to pile snow on the
area," she murmured, and made a note in her calendar. Then she opened
a simple canvas bag and pulled out the tools of the trade: hammer, wrenches,
stopwatch, wooden stakes, and a handful of plastic, neon-green streamers.

She and two students would be out the
next day, staking out the Greenfield site and installing "wells"
at various points on the property: quarter-inch-wide, stainless steel pipes
sunk twelve feet below the surface of the ground and used to gauge how
quickly the petroleum is breaking down. "Microorganisms using the
petroleum as food give off a higher-than-normal amount of carbon dioxide,"
explains Long, holding up one of the slim pipes. "In general, the
higher the carbon dioxide level, the greater the biodegradation rate."

S
ONE OF JUST A FEW SCIENTISTS in the College of Engineering, Long is a bit
of an oddity there, she notes. Asked to define the distinction, she says that
scientists "are looking to discover something about the world,"
whereas engineers are looking to apply the knowledge from that discovery,
to create a system that brings about a particular result. And though she lauds
the camaraderie of the civil and environmental engineering department, where
she has been a faculty member for five years, she nonetheless identifies herself
as a scientist.

"Good scientists never lose their
inquisitiveness," she says. "They keep asking, `Why? Why do we
do this a certain way? Is that really the best way to to do this?' A good
scientist always wants to know more." (A good scientist is also, Long
adds, precise a trait necessary, too, in a talented baker; this scientist
regularly regales her colleagues with cream puffs and other pastries.)

Working in engineering, says Long, allows
her to explore a range of subjects: "The kinds of projects I work
on may not seem to have much in common, but they all have biological aspects,"
she says. "In environmental engineering, you can study waste, water,
or air. I do waste and water, two out of three." Her current pursuits
include tracking the sources of microbial contaminants in drinking water
collected in reservoirs. Yet another project focuses on the stabilization
of sludge more properly known as biosolids removed from water at the Deer
Island wastewater treatment plant in Boston.
The Deer Island biosolids are dried into pellets, stored in silos for several
weeks, then transported by rail to Florida, where they enrich the sandy
soil in citrus groves by adding organic matter. The problem with this salutary
method of treatment, Long explains, is that under certain conditions, dormant
microorganisms in the pellets may become active and generate heat, and
the pile actually ignites. Among the solutions that she and colleague Michael
Switzenbaum are contemplating is treating the pellets with food preservatives
which, Long notes, are nontoxic, blend with the environment, and are readily
available.

"I love working in the field,"
says Long, and makes a note. "I have to ask them not to pile snow
on the site."

A UMass grad who grew up in California,
Long claims that as a youngster she was "one of the nerdy kids."
It's difficult to picture her that way. She is friendly and outgoing; students
and colleagues stream in and out of her office with questions and greetings.
As an undergrad, Long initially contemplated a career in medicine, but
a necessary course left her squeamish. "Biology and anatomy were not
for me," she laughs. She graduated in environmental science and went
on to earn her master's and doctoral degrees in environmental science and
engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Between
her master's and doctoral studies, she spent some time working in the private
sector, which was satisfying, she says up to a point.

"In two years in business, I'd been promoted as far as I could go,
and I couldn't see doing the same thing for thirty years," she said.
"And I really missed being around young people who were interested
in knowledge." She was also influenced by the example set by mentors
from her undergrad days, Robert Walker of environmental science and Edward
Klekowski of biology. "When you're in the world and sort of being
an adult for the first time, it can be very intimidating," she says.
"I really want to teach and have the kind of impact on students that
Bob and Ed had on me."

Long's efforts to mentor extend beyond
the campus. Along with colleague James Male, she coordinates a summer research
program aimed at encouraging undergraduates from diverse backgrounds to
consider advanced degees. For the past three years, the program has brought
seven or eight students from across the country to UMass to delve into
issues such as water supply and groundwater contamination. Long stresses
the importance of going beyond a B.S.; advanced degrees not only open the
doors to academia, she says, but make it more likely that students who
take them into industry will wind up in leadership positions. Funded by
the National Science Foundation, the Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates
gives priority to civil and environmental engineering students who are
women and members of traditionally underrepresented groups. Long, who is
Chinese American, says that role models have been a crucial factor in her
success. "It's really important for students to see that a woman from
a minority group can earn advanced degrees, can be a scientist, and can
do interesting research."

Among Long's courses are Introduction
to Environmental Engineering Principles and Hazardous Waste Management,
taken primarily by juniors and seniors, and graduate-level courses on bioremediation
and environmental microbiology. She dresses up when she teaches, out of
respect, she says, for her role and her students; and she engages students
with lively visual presentations: using a ball and a Velcro ping-pong paddle,
for instance, to symbolize chemical absorption onto soil particles.
"Some of the material is difficult, and I try to keep students from
getting discouraged," she says. "I tell them, `This is where
we're going to use the knowledge, and this is why it's important.' I tell
them I'm not trying to torture them."
She pauses and adds, "A lot of students come in with the idea that
they're interested in air pollution or hazardous waste, but the very best
students realize that it's not so much what you're working on, but how
you're working on it, and what you're learning."

PORTING
A BLUE LAB COAT , Long moves through a lab in the basement of Marcus Hall.
Work is progressing on several projects. Mason jars of soil samples are packed
into refrigerators. Hulking biohoods remove microscopic particles from the
air, enabling the researchers to conduct experiments without fear of various
samples being contaminated. Specialized instruments determine the chemical
composition of water samples and chart it in jagged black lines.
Long pauses before a machine that is slowly charting the chemical composition
of a water sample pulled from the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton. The reservoir,
which is along the route that water travels from the Quabbin Reservoir
to metropolitan Boston, is in a region that has undergone a significant
amount of development, raising concerns about pollutants possibly seeping
into the water. The state monitors the water five days a week; Long's role
is tracking possible microbial contaminants to their sources all the way
up the tributaries, if necessary. While the data on bacteria in the water
are easy to pinpoint, it's not always so easy to determine exactly what
conclusions should be drawn from the numbers, Long says. "Do coliform
counts and fecal coliform counts give us enough information to assure us
we're providing pathogen-free water? That's what I'm working on finding
out."

But the path to the answers is a lengthy
one, she says, and fraught with numerous, time-consuming tasks in the lab.
And while the many small steps that scientific research requires can be
frustrating at times, Long says she remedies that by keeping her eye on
the goal.
"You have to be a big-picture person to be a scientist," Long says.
"It's really important to keep in mind that what we're doing matters;
we're helping keep the environment clean for people."